


Here’s To You, Mrs. Peabody

by orphan_account



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Five is 21, Older Woman/ Younger Man, Pool Boy AU, Romance, There is mention of other couples if you squint, Title came from “Mrs. Robinson”- a song by Simon & Garfunkel, Vanya is married to Leonard an unhappy, Vanya is thirties to forties idk if I ever mention her actual age but she’s middle aged basically, You guys know what happens I’m assuming, is that really a thing? Who knows?, she also happens to get a pool boy, so much more angst than I would have expected
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:48:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22732054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Vanya Peabody is a middle-aged woman in an unhappy marriage. All she wants is a chance to escape it. Enter Five: a broke college student, trying to pay for his tuition working odd jobs- most recently, the pool boy to Mrs. Peabody.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 7
Kudos: 89





	Here’s To You, Mrs. Peabody

**Author's Note:**

> I made a playlist for this if you want to listen to it while you read 😎
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/user/booyoushipwhore/playlist/7j9ENYzaajxEGgyPW9grct?si=dyyi67SnRpeFCiijzzDmsw
> 
> A basic content warning that there is an abusive relationship with Leonard and Vanya, I did not know which tag exactly to put. Due to that, this has “author chose not to tag warnings.” This right here is my warning if reading an abusive relationship can be a trigger for you. I will say that it is not given in very explicit details, thought it is still very much present and could be upsetting to those who have experienced abuse in their past.

Vanya looked out the window, concentrating on the view of the outside world. Sometimes as she writes her novel, she tries to see the world outside her life. It was nice to pretend that she was someone else. Leonard was out somewhere, likely getting drunk again. She felt guilty at being happy for it, but him at a bar was better than him being at home. 

She wondered if she should try to contact her estranged sister. Allison had the sort of pull (and bank account) that could likely get Vanya a chance to escape. She quickly squashed that thought before it could mature though. Allison did not care for Leonard at all. She had essentially told Vanya that she was never to contact her again if she went through with the marriage. Vanya had gone through with the marriage, a fact that she tried to ignore each time she saw Allison’s or Luther’s face splashed across the tabloids.

Money was not a problem for Vanya, she had made fortune when she published her first book about ten years prior. Before then she had been a highly successful musician, though she attributed her fame to Allison. Having Allison Hargreeves as a sister made Vanya famous by proxy. 

No, money was not a problem. She had enough for people to clean her house, shop for her, and cook for her. She did not think much of it, considering that she gave them nice wages. And did her best to leave as little a mess as she could. Leonard did not have any qualms with leaving them a mess to clean up. 

The reason she did not leave her marriage was not a financial matter, no, it was a matter of being afraid of Leonard. She worried that he would find out somehow and hurt had enough that even all the money she had could not cover it up. It had been hard enough to cover up the other times. 

She often tried to justify it in her head, trying to convince herself that she somehow deserved it. Deep down, to the part of her that contemplated leaving, she knew better. 

That part of her rebelled staying in this giant house. That part of her told her she was strong enough to leave, no matter how hard she knew it would be. That part of her wanted to call the number Allison reserved for her family and beg her to help her escape, after apologizing for the mistake of marrying Leonard Peabody. 

Because that’s what this marriage was, a mistake. One of tragic, epic proportions. 

She might have finally gotten the strength to leave that night. But fate had something else prepared for her, and what a funny thing fate was. Because if she had decided that night to leave, she would not have been successful in her endeavor. 

***

Five Hargreeves felt sweat drip down his forehead as his hands quickly went through the equations for DiffEQ. He had about thirty minutes before the class started, but he had not been able to focus on school with every single job he had worked this week. After losing his scholarship to an unfortunate situation that involved public intoxication and punching a campus police officer in the face, he had to work many odd jobs. To be fair, hit likely could’ve been a much worse sentencing than the loss of his scholarship, and if it had not been for a professor standing up for him, he likely would have. It paid that he was a genius sometimes, and that that professor enjoyed listening to the theories he had developed over the years. 

Being a genius unfortunately entailed knowing how much he would have to work before he was able to pay for college. Luckily, most of his employees got to see how the 1% lived, and he got paid pretty well so long as he himself made himself pretty. Many of his employees obviously did not pick him for his pool scraping capabilities or even the fact that he was intelligent enough to do almost anything they needed him for. No, these women saw a pretty face that sometimes took a shirt off when he worked in the heat. The women were merciless, all unhappy in the marriages they only chose for being rich. He didn’t judge them for their gold digging though, he was digging gold just as much as them. 

It was as he had finished the last problem and was getting dressed that his phone alerted him to a message. Frowning, he walked over, eyes scanning over the message quickly. The woman was not even subtle about her request for a “pool boy” service. 

“Pool boy, huh? Original,” he muttered, the cash register noise already flaring in his head. He smirked before replying, telling who he assumed was a very desperate woman that he would gladly be there later today. 

He saved her number; under “Cougar #7,” hoping that he would be able to score another regular client. Based on her not-so-subtle request, he figured it was, at the very least, a strong possibility. 

Satisfied with himself, he walked to class.

***

Vanya’s decision to hire a pool boy had come when she was deciding whether or not she wanted to open her pool early for the year. Spring had passed almost completely now that it was April, at least as far as the weather was going. One look at her pool made her realize that she would need it to undergo a little TLC. Her old pool boy, a dude around her age named Klaus, had moved away when his husband, Ben, had gotten a job as an English professor for a university in Arizona. 

She purses her lips, wondering how exactly she was supposed to find somebody new. Then, she remembered one of her neighbors, a woman that looked like she belonged on “The Real Housewives,” raving about a college student named Five. She had said he gave the best work of anybody in her life, which Vanya figures was a really impressive review! She hoped he worked well for her too, which he likely would for how strong his reviews were. 

She searched her wallet for the generic business card that said “The Commission HandyMan Service '' above a number. The card said texts were preferred, so she quickly composed a message asking if he did pool boy services. She was not entirely certain how exactly to word it, but she figured he would get the message that she needed someone to clean all of the leaves and other stuff that had accumulated in her pool. 

A few minutes later, he told her he would come by later that day. She whistled, impressed. Even without having met him, she knew that he was at least very timely about his requests, which was nice to know. 

She walked inside, climbing the stairs to her office quickly. She figured that she could work on her novel until he got there, and she set herself to work quickly. 

***

Five arrived at Mrs. Peabody’s house around 5:30 P.M. he had made sure to brush through his hair and put on cologne, hoping that she would become a new regular. As he knocked on the door of what would better be called a mansion than a house, he felt a twinge of anxiety. When he had driven to the address, an aching familiarity had risen in his chest. He soon realized why, after passing by the house of an old client that he had mentally referred to as “The Handler” because she consistently got in his space and multiple times touched him on the waist or in his arms- even after he jerked back. It was not that he had not been used to clients looking at him that way, but she had been particularly brazen in her advances. He had eventually quit working for her, despite the amazing pay. Now, after passing by her house, he was nervous to knock on Mrs. Peabody’s door.

He shouldn’t have been nervous though. When Mrs. Peabody walked out in pajamas and one side of her face a bright red, as if she had fallen asleep on it, he realized the girl was not a threat. 

Despite her disheveled appearance, he continued on with his charm tactic. Her text had asked for a pool boy, and knew very well what that meant. 

She smiled at him, surprisingly shy before leading him to what he assumed would be a pool. 

“I’m surprised there’s actually a pool,” he muttered, probably too loudly because she glanced at him with a very confused expression.

“What do you mean?” She asked. _Shit,_ she had obviously heard what he said. 

“Uh, well, you know,” he tried to keep a steady voice, uncomfortable actually voicing what he had grown to expect from his employees. 

“Oh,” she said, and if it weren’t for what she said next, he would have thought she had gotten the gist. Apparently not, though. “I guess opening in April is a little strange, you were expecting a hot tub. I understand now.”

_I doubt that,_ he thought to himself. Despite how uncomfortable he was, he felt a small grin fall across his features. Unless this woman was putting on a tremendous act, she was oblivious. It was a little cute.

He felt a jolt to his system, surprised that he would think that. Shaking himself a bit, he peered over at the pool. 

She really _had_ needed his pool services, hadn’t she? The pool was absolutely disgusting, and he raised a brow. “This might cost you extra in this condition,” he said. He reminded himself that he had no money for college, and a degree would be necessary in order to work on his research. 

She smiled brightly at him, appearing more awake than before. “Of course, just tell me how much to put on the check when you’re finished. I might go upstairs and work on my writing though, if that’s okay with you. I never really know what’s best for the workers when I am here, and I try to stay out of the way usually.”

“Yeah, that’s absolutely fine! Do whatever you want,” he said. It was weird that she was concerned about him, but also a little nice. It was definitely refreshing to see one of his employers appear to be a relatively kind person.

He glanced over at her when she walked inside her house, an odd smile forming on his face. The smile melted quickly one he glanced back at the pool. When she had mentioned needing a pool boy, he had been certain that she was just like any other women that had employed him, but he figured out that wasn’t true at the sight of her pool. He felt a sense of confusion after the quick pang of disappointment he felt. Why did he care? It’s not like he enjoyed pretending to like being around women twice his age. 

He shook himself mentally before forcing himself to really focus. 

The work went by quickly once he mentally zoned from it. The sky was dark by the time he was done. He rang the doorbell, to alert her that he was leaving and he needed to be paid. About three minutes later, she opened the door. He raised his eyebrows at the sight of her, she had fixed her hair, put on nice clothes, and very light makeup. Maybe she had been just like his previous employers after all. 

“You going out?” he asked. 

“Oh, no, it’s just that Leonard is about to come home, and he doesn’t like it when I-“ she trailed off, eyes widening. Noticeably changing the subject, she said, “How much do I owe you again?”

“What?” he asked, mentally cursing himself for acting stupid. It was because she had taken him off guard with the mention of her husband. A sour taste sat in his mouth when she talked about him, though, for the life of him, he did not know why. He assumed the guy probably just didn’t like waiting for a woman to get ready before going out. Aside from the toxic masculinity, it was not that out of the ordinary. Nothing to be concerned about. 

“For the check?” her words prodded him out of his thoughts, and he glanced up at her with a confused expression. She lifted her checkbook, and he realized what she was saying finally. 

Quickly, he named the price, and she wrote a check out quickly, signed it, and handed it to him with a blank expression. When he glanced down, his eyes widened. This would be enough to pay for rent, utilities, and a small payment to his tuition. Clearly, money was really not a problem for her. 

“The pool was awful,” she said sheepishly. “Also, I’m likely going to have more projects that I’ll need you to do. I, uh, looked on your website, and saw that you did some remodeling type things, and my office is in desperate need of repair. The house is nice, but it’s old. So I have a lot of things I’m probably going to need you for. That is, uh, if you would be fine with coming back.” She finished her little speech with a small blush appearing on her cheeks. 

He almost smiled, but kept himself from doing it, so she did not think he was making fun of her. “Yeah, whenever you need me, you have my number. Though, seriously, just pay me what I normally charge.” 

She blushed more deeply, and his smile continued to threaten to come out. “I’m going to go back home. I have a lot of homework to work on.”

She smiled before thanking him before closing the door. Once it shut behind her, he let himself smile. 

The smile stayed on his face until he was already to the first light before he realized something that made it disappear. 

She had said that she didn’t plan on going. Why would her husband care then?

***

Vanya closed the door behind her. She had been tempted to ask Five to stay longer after finding something for him to fix. It would have made her feel safer for when Leonard did come home. But then she had thought of how jealous he got, how she did not want Five to see Leonard when he got jealous. She did not worry Five could not handle himself, but she figured it was bad that only she saw how bad he got. Hopefully, word would not ever get out. 

She had almost let something slip about Leonard, but she was pretty certain she had caught herself in time before Five suspected anything. It had been a few years of isolation for her, and she had avoided making friends for years. Five just had an air about him that she could see him being friends with her. She felt herself wanting to tell him about Leonard, to hear his advice. She had caught herself. Leonard did not like her to make friends, a trait she knew was abusive but tried to avoid thinking about. Out of sight, out of mind and all that. 

When Leonard got home, he slammed the door. She flinched, trying to focus on her writing. 

She heard him stomp upstairs and her mind went blank. The sense of numbness in her brain was a familiar distraction. She usually went numb when he was near her, letting herself believe that she was not actually there. In her mind, she could travel away from her situation. She could become one of the people from outside her window, living their lives. She liked to think their lives were better, that there was more hope in them. 

Leonard has reached her office, and she tried to imagine a life with hope as she gave standard replies. Maybe shutting down like this was her way to cope, but she wished she could feel angry sometimes. Maybe that way she could actually do something about her situation, rather than just wanting to do something about it. 

She smelled a strong perfume on him then, and it was not quite anger she felt, but at least she felt _something._ Some semblance of hope that maybe just maybe, she had not become sort of pathetic robot of a person. 

“And I guess you sacrifice so much by having sex with other women too,” she said quietly, thought loud enough that he certainly would have heard her. 

“You think I _want_ to fuck other women?” he yelled, and she almost laughed that he was convinced he could spin that into where he was a martyr. “It’s not my fault you have frozen me out for years. We haven’t fucked in _years_ , Vanya.”

She scoffed at that, “Well, thank the Lord that you’re willing to make a sacrifice by fucking another woman!”

He looked at her with such a shocked expression, she felt satisfaction from it. This was the most she had ever spoken against him, and he clearly was surprised that she had it in her. She rose from her desk, walking past him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he snapped. 

“Maybe I’ll make a sacrificed for our marriage, and fuck someone else too!” 

She left him, going to her. She only wished that she had had a camera to capture his look of disbelief. 

***

Five cursed after he crumbled his homework for the eighth time. It seemed no matter how much he was convinced he had an answer, it wasn’t right. Each time he checked his work by working backwards, everything he wrote was nonsense. 

A fitting metaphor for his own internal conflict. No matter how many times he tried to solve what Mrs. Peabody has said he could not find the right answer. Once he was certain he knew, his mind changed, refusing to accept any answer.

He felt tempted to reach out to her, but he could not come up with any logical reason why he would call her when it was so late. 

He sighed. Obviously, his homework was not working for a reason. He was a genius, obviously the equation was not the problem. But there was no way at all he could fix the real problem. 

He decided, as a genius, what he should do was stare at his phone dejectedly until it solved his problems. 

Thirty minutes later, it still had not. So, he decided drinking maybe would solve them. He grabbed his wallet walking to his car. The bar that the other college students frequently used was not ideal, considering it that’s where he had gotten himself into this financial ordeal in the first place. He drove a little further to one of the gross, seedy bars on the “bad” side of town. The side of town was not excruciating, but the bar itself was.

He ordered something off the top of his head, not really caring about the drink itself so much as the effect of it. He had drank only a few sips before his phone alerted him to a message. He frowned at it before grabbing it with an energy that likely looked desperate to the other patrons of the bar. 

Mrs. Peabody had asked him to pick her up, saying something about Uber drivers being murderers. He felt a smirk on his face grow, not that the world was a horrifying place for women, just that Mrs. Peabody had known him for a very short amount of time and was willing to trust him. He was glad that she did. He was even more glad that she texted him when she did, otherwise he would have been too tipsy to drive. As it was he had had drank so little that none of the effects had happened yet. So, he slung his keys and wallet up, walking to his car and driving to the location she had mentioned. 

When he got there, he frowned at the bar in front of him. Thankfully, it was a thousand times classier than the one he had just driven from. He texted her when he got there, though after ten minutes of her not coming out, he walked inside. She looked to be sleeping against a table near the back. He walked over to her, very gently shaking her awake. She peered up at him blearily. “Five?” she hiccuped. 

He smiled as softly as he could, “That’s me.”

She laid her head back down for a few seconds before she attempted to stand. 

He quickly steadied her, ignoring the way it seemed that his hand felt a thousand degrees where it touched her. She leaned against his chest, asking if he could help her walk because she was not certain if she could. 

He glanced down at her, mentally assessing her tiny body. Confident that he could handle it, he scooped her into his arms. She made a surprised sound but did not protest, so he carried her to his car. 

“Did you really not want to Uber?” he asked, too curious to not know the answer. He sort of expected that she already had a personal chauffeur anyways. 

“I’ve never been in an Uber before”, she announced, like this was shocking news. She continued on, “And I can barely leave the house, anyways, so, yeah, no personal driver either, which you probably were thinking, since you obviously think I’m some sort of billionaire that is so out of touch that she cannot even drive!”

Though he _did_ think that, he did not voice it. He was more concerned with something else she had said. “What do you mean you _can’t_ leave the house?” 

She groaned, “Stop talking, my head hurts.”

He sighed, but he obeyed. She had told him in the text that she would pay him, so he really had to treat it like any other job. 

After about five minutes, it was she who broke the silence. “Quit being so loud!”

“I haven’t said anything!” 

“I can hear you thinking, it’s too loud!”

“You got super powers I don’t know about, Mrs. Peabody?”

She grumbled something about the name “Peabody” that he couldn’t quite catch but confirmed that she did not enjoy her marriage. He had had his suspicions, but he was certain now. At least part of the problem was solved.

He wondered if he was still supposed to follow the now broken no talking rule, and he glanced over at Mrs. Peabody. She was already sinking back into sleep. It then occurred to him that he was not at all sure where he was going, subconsciously just having been driving to his apartment. 

“Mrs. Peabody?” he asked. Her eyes snapped open, and she glanced over at him.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Where did you want me to take you?” 

She sighed before asking him to find a motel or whatever was closest.

He wondered what had set this off. It was not like it was any of his business, but he did not know if she secretly wanted to talk and was not saying anything for fear of making him uncomfortable. On the other hand; if he asked about it, he worried that she would think he was intrusive. Instead of either of those things, he stayed silent. 

He passed by a couple of grimy looking motels, not bothering to stop at either of them. He figured that was probably _not_ what she had in mind.

Eventually though, he found a relatively decently looking one. He pulled up to it, before walking to the passenger seat and scooping Mrs. Peabody up in his arms again. He also grabbed her purse so he could pay for the hotel.

When they got inside, the lady at the desk looked at them with a knowing smirk. He wanted to explain that it was not what it looked like, but if he protested, he knew that would say even more. So, he ignored it.

He gave the woman Mrs. Peabody’s information and her card, making the woman’s smirk grow. He sighed internally, beyond grateful that Mrs. Peabody was barely conscious. 

When he had checked her in, he almost set her down to fend for herself. He knew her floor was up pretty high, however, and he decided since her walking was not improving any that he could help her upstairs. He was getting paid either way, he told himself. 

When he got her inside her room, he noticed that her head was resting on his shoulder. He also noticed that he did not hate it. He refused to let himself think further than that though, Mrs. Peabody was not like his previous employers, and he could not let himself upset her like that. 

He settled her down against the bed. He nearly passed out when she started stripping. 

“Mrs. Peabody?” he sputtered. 

She glanced up at him with a frown, and he quickly found a robe from across the room. In the time he had gone to get it, she had gotten down to her underwear. That was not why he stared at her though.

Bruises covered her torso, back, and just high up enough on her legs that it would not be noticed to anyone without seeing her as she was now. Obviously, Mr. Peabody did not want anyone to know about it. His fists clenched as he surveyed the patches of blue and the small bumps of yellow on the older spots. Where they all lay on her, it was clear they weren’t isolated events. 

He would have wanted to kill Mr. Peabody if it had just been an isolated event. 

“Five?” she asked, and his heart melted of its anger and replaced with the fierce sense of protectiveness over the small woman in front of him.

“I grabbed a robe,” he could have teleported with how fast he got over to hand it to her. 

She wrapped it around herself, glancing up at him with those doe-eyes pleading. He knew then that whatever she asked, he would do it. Even though they had known each other for such a short time, he considered her a friend now. 

***

Vanya did not end up fucking somebody else that night. 

She did still make a fool of herself. She had gotten drunk at a bar, called her pool boy to pick her up, and had even gotten partially naked in front of him. She didn't think she had sobered up at all until Five had stopped and stared at her bruises. She quickly cursed liquor.

Five saw her pleading gaze, and she wondered if it was right to ask what she was about to ask. She didn’t know what he was likely to say or not say. Maybe he wouldn’t think it was any of his business and not tell anybody what he saw. While she could hope for that, there was no way of telling.

Finally, she asked, “Could you keep this between us?”

Immediately, she regretted it. Five jerked back, telling her, “Mrs. Peabody, shouldn’t people know so it will be easier when you try to get out? I’m assuming that’s your plan, isn't it? Surely, you’re reasonable enough to know that he’s not getting any better and you have to end this?”

She sighed, “He wasn’t always like this, you know.”

Seeing that he was about to protest, she changed tactics. “I do plan on leaving eventually,” she told him. She had not realized that it was true until the words hung between them. She wondered how many times she had thought them, not daring to let them be said aloud. 

Still, Five looked skeptical. 

“Eventually is not a definite amount of time,” he reminded her, though she could tell he was trying to sound as kind about it as he could. She got the idea that Five was a sort of “grumpy old man” type. If he were older, she could see him telling teenagers to get off his lawn. 

“I plan on leaving soon,” she tried instead. 

Five still looked unsure, but she guessed that he was probably not in the mood to argue. 

“I’m going home,” he told her finally. “Text me when you want me to pick you up tomorrow unless you want to stay here a bit longer. If that’s the case, just tell them downstairs, and you should be fine.”

She nodded quickly, and he looked like he wanted to say more. He didn’t, just left the room with a peculiar frown. 

Vanya did not know why, considering everything going on in her life, she fell asleep with a smile. 

***

Five did not want to leave Mrs. Peabody, but he did not think there was any reason he could have given her as to why he should have stayed.

Hopefully, soon really did mean soon.

***

Vanya awoke to the worst hangover in years. Bits and pieces stood out from the night before. She remembered everything that happened with Five, but she did not remember the part of actually getting drunk. 

She did not ask Five to pick her up. She did not know what she would have told him. 

She did have one idea, though. She happened to have been one of three kids that her father had adopted. Allison may have been estranged, but every few months, she spoke with Diego. He was not the nicest person in the universe, but Diego has been trying to be kinder to her over the years, no doubt a result of his guilt. She sometimes thought it had something to do with Allison leaving. He had never been a fan of her, but he had been upset in that way only siblings could, the mentality of “only I can be an asshole to them.” 

She called Diego, promising him that she would buy him breakfast if he picked her up. Diego, unlike Vanya and Allison, had troubles when it came to money. While technically all three of them _could_ have depended on their father’s, they refused on principle. If he could hold money over them, he could have control. Naturally, they all worked their way in the world. She suspected that maybe Allison’s, and, subsequently, her recognition came partially from him. But they did not directly take money from him, so there was nothing he could do about it. 

When Diego had picked her up, she had showered and put on the clothes from the night before. He grinned upon seeing the wrinkled clothes and her likely bloodshot eyes, “Walk of shame, little sister?” 

She made a face at him before simply saying that she had a rough night. Though Diego said nothing in response, the smile vanished from his face. 

They drove in silence to a donut shop they went to as kids. 

“Griddy’s?” Vanya filled the silence between them, looking at her brother in confusion. 

He smiled then. “I haven’t had donuts in years, Vanya. Last time we went was with Allison and that annoying husband of hers. I haven’t gone back since then.”

Vanya understood, she hadn’t either. Griddy’s was where her siblings went for years together. It felt wrong to then go without them.

Diego walked inside, but she took a few seconds to stare at the building in front of her. It reminded her of a time when she was not Leonard’s Peabody’s wife. She had instead been Reginald Hargreeves’s daughter. It somehow happened that with time she had gone from one abusive household to another. The thought angered her. 

She ate breakfast with Diego. He talked about Eudora Patch, and she tried to listen. 

After, he drove her home. She walked to the house, trying to hold onto her anger.

She broke, though, when Leonard answered the door and begged for forgiveness. He cried, promising he would never do it again. Her stomach hurt, sending the wrongness, but the numbness had settled over her mind as she accepted his apology. 

She did call Five, asking him if he could fix a spot in the walk. She did not tell him that it was where Leonard had punched it. She did not think she needed to. 

Five came a few hours later, bringing a bag filled with what he’d need to fix the wall with. While he worked, scowling, she sat next to him. When he asked for something, she wordlessly handed it to him. Leonard had left before Five had gotten there, so she did not feel concerned about sitting with Five. 

“So, you’re in college?” She asked, after handing him some sort of putty type thing. 

“Uh, huh,” he said, though he was not trying to hide grumpy old man energies at this particular moment. 

“What do you major in?” she asked. 

“Physics, chemistry, and applied mathematics,” he said, applying the putty. 

“Why that many?”

He scowled, “They’re related majors, Mrs. Peabody. And I enjoy math and science, though math probably more.”

She didn’t know how he was able to handle what she imagined was an awful course load, but she did not argue. Instead, she asked, “Why do you like math?”

He thought about it a second, “I think that I like that, in most cases, there is an answer that I can find to most problems. A lot of times there is no definite answers in life, but, with math, I can at least find the logic of what I need to know the answer.” 

She didn’t know how to respond. She guessed that he found a calmness in numbers the way she felt something besides numbness when she played the violin.

“Mrs. Peabody?” he asked.

She looked up. 

“Why do you stay with somebody like this?” he gestured to the wall, though she had already known when he asked. 

“I don’t know how to explain it,” she told him honestly. “It’s not like he was always this bad. When I married him… when I married him, I knew that he was jealous and argumentative, but not really that much. My sister, Allison, well, Allison told me that she would not support my decision, and we haven’t spoken since then. I really should have listened to her.”

Five looked over at her, pausing in his task. “Even if she was right, Mrs. Peabody, she should not have left you like that. She sounds like a bad sister. If she had been more supportive of you, perhaps you wouldn’t have been in this position now.”

Vanya scoffed, “Well, Allison Hargreeves always does what she wants.” 

Vanya could practically see Five connect the dots. “Hargreeves? You’re Vanya Hargreeves?” 

She had not expected _that_ to be what he would have gotten from that. “I’m shocked that that it’s not Allison you’re mentioning” she wondered if it sounded like she was jealous. 

He made a face, “I don’t really care for her acting. I did very much enjoy the book you wrote, though. I didn’t realize that that was you, though I guess I should’ve been able to figure it out.”

Her eyebrows raised further, “I didn’t realize anybody read my book that didn’t find out about it through me being Allison’s sister.”

He shrugged, “I read it after finding it in a library one day. It’s one of my favorite books, actually. One of the few books I enjoy that has nothing science or math related in them.”

Vanya figures that was probably very high praise from him. She doubts the guy enjoys anything much. It was nice to know somebody appreciated what she had to say. 

She felt a question burning in her, and she had to ask. 

“Five, do you judge me for staying with Leonard?” 

Five turned back to working on the wall. For a second, she thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then, he said, “I’ve heard so many stories where people stayed in these situations. I never understood it. I don’t, obviously, find it wise that you are with him. I will say that you’ve made me understand that smart people do it too. I wish there was a way to convince you that you should just.. I don’t know, get away? But I think that you need to realize that yourself.”

She also knew he really was praising her when he called her smart. She knew that he wouldn’t throw that word around lightly. It was probably the nicest thing he could say to her, since obviously that was what he valued. 

But, despite the complimentX she knew that Five was disappointed that she stayed with Leonard still. 

And she couldn’t help but be disappointed in herself for disappointing Five. 

***

Mrs. Peabody started to spend much more time with him after that. She always had something to do for him around her house, and his checks were bringing his debt down significantly. After the day he had fixed the wall, she always sat down with him while he worked. He rarely went to the other employers with how busy she kept him. Part of him wondered if she was making excuses for why she would need his help. Either way. He did not mind. 

She started to make treats while he worked too. 

One day, he had been working in the late May heat. Sweat was dripping down his bare chest (he had abandoned his shirt after how high the heat had gotten) and he wondered if he should tell her he was going to take a break and go to his campus’s cafeteria.

As he had that thought, Vanya suddenly appeared beside him. He glanced at the tray of lemonade and sandwiches. “Thank you, Mrs. Peabody.” 

He took the tray from her, sipping down lemonade before taking a sandwich. She sat beside him on a little bench in the courtyard. At the moment, she had put him on the task of working on her garden. He was roommates with a biology major that talked his ear off about all types of flowers, and when he had mentioned this to her, she had asked him if he could grow flowers. 

“I can do everything,” he has told her. Alas, this led to him planting flowers for her, but he did not dare complain . 

“What possessed you to make a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich?” he asked, swallowing more lemonade so the peanut butter would not get stuck to the roof of his mouth. 

“I thought you mentioned they were your favorite as a kid,” Vanya said, eyebrows knitting together in concern.

“They were! Still are!” he assured her, wanting her to not be upset. “I guess I am just shocked that you remembered.” 

She shrugged, “The combination was so specific that I couldn’t exactly forget.” 

He laughed, “Thank you, Mrs. Peabody. This is very sweet of you.”

“I can continue making snacks if it helps!” she tells him excitedly. He likes having an excuse to tell her he needs her, even for something as ridiculous as this. So, he asked her if she could. He liked letting her know that he needed her, and he hoped that maybe one day, she might need him just as much.

***

Vanya probably should have known spending all this time with Five should have had an effect on her. She just had no idea that he would have _that_ effect on her. 

The day before had been normal. She had asked Five if he could fix one of the bathroom’s sinks that had a dripping problem. At one point, he had been sprayed by water so bad that he simply took off his soaked shirt. Vanya, who had been talking the whole time, had silenced once he’d been sprayed. She was then silent for a different reason entirely when his shirt came off. Her mouth went dry, and she suddenly felt sweaty. She was not sure what warranted this reaction from her. 

Then Five, worried, had asked, “You okay, Mrs. Peabody?”

“Yes,” she had somehow managed to say. 

She had forced herself then not to think about it. But she could not control her dreams, and her brain was infuriatingly creative.

_“Five,” she whimpered. “Yes, yes, yes. Please, Five. Please.”_

_Five, in her dreams, was also shirtless. He glanced up at her, a dark smirk on his face. His chin and lips glistened, making her whimper again as her brain supplied what he had been doing just moments before._

_Five’s smirk few at the whimper. “Is this what you wanted me to do, Mrs. Peabody?” It was a much more provocative tone than when he hacked her the same question about tile arrangement earlier that week._

_“Yes, Five,” she gasped. “Yes. Please, exactly that.”_

_“Exactly this?” he taunted, raising his eyebrows. He had not moved an inch, looking at her mockingly. He wanted her to tell him what he really wanted. Five aimed to please; he liked it when she was specific._

_“Five, fuck,” she groaned out._

_“I assumed that’s what I had been doing before. Was it not, sweetheart?”_

_She felt a wave of anger then. She would not let him mock her when she was in charge. “Put your face against my cunt and fuck me.” she told him, enunciating the words.._

_Five’s face momentarily betrayed his surprise at her brazenness before he quickly schooled his features back into that annoying smirk._

_“As you wish, Mrs. Peabody.”_

Vanya shot up from her bed, gasping. She felt vaguely disappointed that the dream had cut off when it did. She glanced over to the other side of her bed. Leonard wasn’t there. Good. He did not deserve to see what she was about to do.

She had not felt an urge like this in years, and she wondered if it had been the numbness or the fact that Leonard practically turned into an asexual with how disgusted she was by him. Either way, she was happy that the emotion had returned and wanted to settle the urge. 

It took only a little fiddling through her sock drawer for her to find the device. She grabbed it, walking back to her bed. 

Turning the vibrator on, she let her mind flood with images from her dream.

Being held up by her pillows, she pressed it to where she was throbbing, a whimper escaping her mouth. 

“Fuck,” she groaned, pressing the device to her clit harder. She was imagining in her head that her dream had not been cut off. She imagined Five licking her with the same enthusiasm he had for any of the other tasks he gave her. Once he was satisfied with that, he’d unzip his pants and-

She jerked against the device, moving her hips in a frantic, near bouncing motion. She pressed the device against herself even harder. 

He’d shove himself inside her, roughly the first time. They would have plenty of time in the future to do this more gently. For now, though, hut would hold all of the desperation of the past few months. 

She imagined him coming inside of her as she reached her own climax. As her stomach seized up and her toes curled, she groaned out his name. 

When her breathing had settled, she dropped the toy from her hand. She felt the confusion seep in, then.

She wasn’t ashamed, but it was perplexing. How long had her subconscious been thinking about Five in this way? Did he know that she felt this way? Did that upset him? She thought Five was comfortable enough to tell her if she upset him, but he hadn’t. 

That thought sparked one that she had probably wondered about for a while as well, unknowingly. 

Did Five feel the same way?

***

Five realized he was in love with Mrs. Peabody when he let her clean a cut on his arm.

He had been working on scraping paint off her shed when the scraper cut him. He had gone inside, flinching. Not wanting to frighten her, he had covered the cut with his shirt. He searched for something to clean the wound with when she had come in. She had been in the kitchen, making lunch for them. 

As she saw him, she gasped out, “Five, you’re bleeding!”

He obeyed her as she commanded him to sit down, showing her what actually would be better described as a gash.

She made a concerned little noise, before running off, telling him over her shed older that she was grabbing first aid supplies. 

When she came back, she sat down beside him. She examined his arm before tenderly taking it into her hands. She poured hydrogen peroxide, making the wound bubble up where the liquid touched. 

He studied her face while she was busy, so busy that she wouldn’t notice him staring. Her hair fell in front of her, and her eyebrows knit together in concentration. She bit her lip slightly. 

And just like that, he knew. 

He knew why he always came here when there were other clients. He knew why he got concerned every time he got a text, wondering what her asshole husband had done. He knew why he wanted her to know that she was needed. He knew why he needed her, even.

Five was in love with Mrs. Peabody. 

She finished cleaning his wound. Now, she was wrapping it in a bandage. 

“Thank you, Mrs. Peabody,” he told her.

“Please, call me ‘Vanya’,” she said, with a delicate blush. 

“Thank you, Vanya,” Five said. 

Five loved her even more than loved calling her by her name. 

***

Vanya had expected she would have been embarrassed when she saw Five after realizing her feelings. She was wrong though. She felt as comfortable with Five as she always had. 

They continued on with him working on her house and her keeping him company. One day, she noticed he had changed the way in which he acted around her. He had gotten a cut on his arm, and she had also told him to call her by her first name. She imagined that it was because he felt more like a friend by calling her “Vanya.”

Her house, while it had always been grand, was spectacular now. Leonard had disappeared multiple times in the past few months, sometimes for weeks at a time. 

Still. 

“I sometimes wish I could be far, far away from here,” Vanya told Five one day.

He raised a brow, “Is my work that bad, Vanya?”

She laughed, “No, it’s just. I just want to… get away sometimes.” She knew that he knew she was talking about Leonard.

“Sometimes, far away sounds ideal,” he told her. 

They are their lunch in a comfortable silence after that. 

***

It was late at night when Vanya called him this time. He woke up, glancing over at his phone. He answered the call, asking where he needed to go. 

This time, she was not at a bar. Instead, she was crying at a neon-lit donut shop. 

He walked to her, and she tried to give him a wet smile that came out as more of a grimace. 

“Why’d you go here?”

“It’s the only place that he couldn’t ruin,” she told him, which was going to be the only explanation he would give him. 

“Where do you want to go, Vanya?”

“Far, far away,” she told him. 

“How about a hotel instead?” he asked. 

She laughed a bit, and they went back to the hotel he had taken her to, which felt like so long ago. 

This time, when he carried her to her room, he did not leave. 

This time, it was him who took off her clothes. 

As his hands pulled off the buttons on her shirt, she told him, “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“I did too,” he confirmed, working quicker. 

He was angry at the sight of her bruises but he tried to focus on the masterpiece that was her body instead. At least most of the bruises had healed since Leonard had barely been around. There was a fresh one, though, and he leaned down to kiss it gently. He glanced up at her, silently asking if he could go on. At her nod, he unclasped her bra, mouth going dry at the sight of her breasts. 

He lay her down against the bed, fingers circling over one of her nipples. 

“You’re beautiful, Vanya,” he told her. She smiled so brilliantly in that moment that everything wrong in their lives was forgotten. 

“And I want to fuck you,” he told her, tenderness forgotten as he he started placing wet, open-mouthed kisses against her chest. She kept whimpering for him to continue, to never stop. Who was he to deny her?

His mouth eventually reached the bottom of her stomach, and he quickly tugged her ones and underwear off, moving his mouth down to her dripping cunt. His tongue licked a strip across the length of it, and her hips pressed against him. He followed the patterns of what produced the strongest reactions from her, figuring out what exactly made her moan. Her hips moved in time with his tongue, and he groaned as her legs pushed him closer to her from where they had been wrapped around his neck. 

Once he couldn’t even comprehend her insistent words and she was shaking and begging for release, he lifted his face up. She made a panicked little noise in the back of her throat, but she stopped when he rid himself of his clothes in front of her.

With how long he had waited for this, he was not gentle when he pushed inside of her. Only when he was fully inside did he glance up at her, reading her expression. She gave him another little nod, telling him to go. 

And he went. He pushed himself outside of her and back in, lifting her up by her thighs into his hands. She kissed him again, and his mind flooded with the memory of having kissed her in the elevator before. 

It all happened so quickly, that he had worried he would forget it all. They had been frantic to get to one another at the time, lips forming words that had been kept silent before. 

He forced himself to be mindful of savoring this now, wanting to keep this memory with him for the rest of his life. 

But as he saw her face tighten at her final moan, he knew there was no way he could ever forget. 

***

Vanya was reeling when she came home the next day. She had never felt as happy as she did at that moment. 

She was also never so certain that she would be leaving Leonard behind. 

As if he could hear her thoughts though, he appeared before. 

He knew. She had no idea how he knew, but he did.

He shoved his face in front of her, and she could feel the numbness wash over again at his screams. 

And when he moved his hand to strike her, she was seeing it through someone else’s eyes. She knew that he wouldn’t hold back this time. 

But he stopped at the last second as the fiat collided with his face. He turned around, pissed, but Five was already on him. 

He was knocked out by the time the police had arrived, having heard a complaint from a neighbor about a domestic dispute. But it was clear what had happened after they took their testimonies. It was obvious that anything that happened to Leonard was self-defense, and she remembered the fear she had of the pity in the officer’s eyes. Of course, she knew some of them at the station by that point, this wasn’t the first time they had been called. They didn’t stare at her in pity, though. Eudora Patch whispered to her that she was glad Five had been there and that Leonard had it coming. As an afterthought, she told her that she had alerted Diego and he was willing to offer testimony about Leonard as well. 

In a month’s time, she had sold the house. She wanted to go far, far away. And when she did do that, Five was beside her. Finally, she had gotten her wish to be one of the people outside. And she was hopeful. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for this ending, but I wanted this to be posted on Valentine’s Day and low key rushed it. Uh, also, it’s forty eight minutes past Valentine’s Day as I write this, so sorry?


End file.
